republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/sb-1413.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Immunity of persons; statements regarding matters of public concern communicated to a third party."
description: "Adds defamation to the causes of action from which a citizen shall be immune when making statements (i) regarding matters of public concern to a third party or (ii) at a public hearing before the governing body of any locality or other political subdivision, or the boards, commissions, agencies, and authorities thereof, and other governing bodies of any local governmental entity. The bill further provides that the immunity does not apply to any statements made with actual or constructive knowledge that they are false, or with reckless disregard for whether they are false. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 1413"
citation: "Virginia SB 1413 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Civil Remedies and Procedure"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Glen H. Sturtevant, Jr."]
version_count: 6
action_count: 28
vote_count: 10
first_action: "2017-01-11"
last_action: "2017-03-16"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/a63b9ea7-d3a9-4a7a-b67e-8b909a914694"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB1413"
source_hash: "cfb1ae6a228767ee551e153663ce0c909430062a2a94567aa192176bf594b148"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 1413 (2017) — Immunity of persons; statements regarding matters of public concern communicated to a third party.

Adds defamation to the causes of action from which a citizen shall be immune when making statements (i) regarding matters of public concern to a third party or (ii) at a public hearing before the governing body of any locality or other political subdivision, or the boards, commissions, agencies, and authorities thereof, and other governing bodies of any local governmental entity. The bill further provides that the immunity does not apply to any statements made with actual or constructive knowledge that they are false, or with reckless disregard for whether they are false. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0597)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0597)
2. **House: Committee substitute printed 17105470D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1413H1)
3. **Senate: Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB1413ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1413ER)
4. **Senate: Committee substitute printed 17105092D-S1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1413S1)
5. **Senate: Conference substitute printed 17105897D-S2** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1413S2)
6. **Senate: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103698D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB1413)

## Votes

- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Senate acceded to request — **39–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute — **17–4** (pass) · legislature
- Conference report agreed to by Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed Senate — **38–2** (pass) · legislature
- House substitute rejected by Senate — **2–38** (fail) · legislature
- Conference report agreed to by House — **95–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments — **8–1** (pass) · legislature
- Passed House with substitute — **77–20** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute — **13–2** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Glen H. Sturtevant, Jr. — primary (person)
- Adam P. Ebbin — cosponsor (person)
- Jennifer L. McClellan — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17103698D `introduction`
- **2017-01-11** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-06** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-06** Reading of substitute waived
- **2017-02-06** Committee substitute agreed to 17105092D-S1
- **2017-02-06** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB1413S1
- **2017-02-09** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-02-09** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-09** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-09** Assigned Courts sub: Civil Law `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-21** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-22** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-22** Committee substitute agreed to 17105470D-H1
- **2017-02-22** Engrossed by House - committee substitute SB1413H1
- **2017-02-22** Passed House with substitute (77-Y 20-N) `passage`
- **2017-02-23** House insisted on substitute
- **2017-02-23** House requested conference committee
- **2017-02-23** Conferees appointed by Senate
- **2017-02-23** Conferees appointed by House
- **2017-02-25** Amended by conference committee
- **2017-02-25** Conference substitute printed 17105897D-S2
- **2017-02-25** Conference report agreed to by House (95-Y 0-N)
- **2017-03-07** Enrolled
- **2017-03-07** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-03-10** Signed by President
- **2017-03-13** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on 3/13/17
- **2017-03-13** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-16** Approved by Governor-Chapter 597 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/a63b9ea7-d3a9-4a7a-b67e-8b909a914694`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).